Eric Pickles pictures the horrors of a Labour government

Eric Pickles has a vivid imagination. He set out to remind the Conservative faithful today the dangers of letting Labour back into office, and why they, not the Tories, are the real nasty party. He painted a picture of where Britain might be if we were living under a Labour coalition:

‘Labour would have quickly lost the confidence of the markets for failing to tackle the deficit. Mortgage rates would have soared, and after that, taxes too. The Chancellor, Ed Balls, would be extending his so-called “mansion tax” to ordinary family homes…the Business Secretary – Unite’s Baron McCluskey of Mersey Docks – would be abolishing Margaret Thatcher’s trade union reforms and turning the clock back to the 1970s.’

And went on to suggest what a future Labour government or coalition would lead to:

‘A vote for Labour still means more spending, more borrowing, more debt, more taxes and a return to the culture of spin. So let me give you the condensed version. Yes – there is a Nasty Party. And it’s called the Labour Party.

By suggesting the next election will a clear choice between the Tories or ‘back to the future with Red Ed’, Pickles cleverly links Miliband back to the dark days of Gordon Brown and Damian McBride (still an uncomfortable topic) while placing the Tories on the side of hard working people.

He went on to extoll the coalition’s record on house building and council tax, recalling his predecessor John Prescott to nicely round off with a cost of living message:

‘John Prescott told councils to hike up parking charges, cut the number of parking spaces and use parking fines to punish motorists. It’s no wonder that nine million parking fines are now issued every year.

‘…we will make it easier for hardworking people to pop into the local shop to buy a newspaper or a pint of milk. We will empower local residents to challenge the excessive yellow lines and unreasonable fines. We will switch off the parking ‘cash cameras’ and spy cars. We are helping families with the cost of living, and supporting local shops.’

The Tories are stepping their attacks on Labour up a gear this year because they now feel they have the evidence to undermine their opponents. But they also have a ‘nasty’ badge for the Labour party, thanks to the McBride book. They don’t want to just paint Labour as wrong, but as bad too.

Pickles is a Born yesterday Christian. His judgement is clearly impaired.

Littlegrayman

Interestingly comments /criticism of Labour are blocked on Labour List. I assume to ensure innovative thoughts are not Hobsbawned.

London Calling

Sad………but true…………under Labour who knows what mess we would be in now………….:(

davebush999

Vote tory at the next election and you get Dave still in charge. That is the real horror.

http://twitter.com/MisGrace Julieann Carter

A fitting image I think! There is plenty of evidence available to demonstrate the aggression and hate filled bile associated with the Labour Party.
The behaviour of some of their demonstrators, spitting and grabbing hold of people.
The thuggish physical abuse dished out by the Unite sponsored bottle-throwing UAF, and Hope Not Hate.
The vicious tweets and reader comments on the Guardian’s CIF and other forums.
The appalling and distressing behaviour of members of their party faithful upon Maggie’s death. (These images would go well with the picture illustrated here).
They REALLY are the nasty party. Frightening and Intimidating.
Also demonstrate the political incompetence and hypocrisy of those awful Labour women. They should be held up to the highest ridicule – along with their Messiah, Polly Toynbee!
Make a short comedy film starring the precocious children, Owen Jones and Laurie Penny. A take on the Munchkins maybe, where the BBC can be the behind-the-scenes, manipulative Wizard-of-Oz.

Rant over…..

Colin

Ah, Mr. Pickles. The Coalition’s very own Frank Dobson and the Token fat northerner in the Tory party. He talks a much better game than he plays. Two months ago, my local, Tory council abolished weekly bin collections.

he should either, do something or shut up and go away.

Teacher

My local Tory councillor in Buckinghamshire – and you don’t get bluer than that – has betrayed the electorate by introducing a third, colour coded bin, to the two which currently disfigure our beautiful villages and streets and make them look like inner cities. Where was Eric Pickles when I needed him?

Two Bob

Vote UKIP get Milliband. Vote Tory get Blair Mk 2. I will take my chances thanks.

Russell

Vote UKIP and show which party you support and which parties (LibLabCon) you no longer support. All three main parties are terrified as they should be. Roll on MEP and council elections next year, they will get the fright of their lives, especially all the marginal constituency MP’s from all three parties.

HookesLaw

Being kind to motorists makes sound political sense. We pay a fortune in taxes as it is.
The (nosy) Parking Police are missing the point of parking regulations in the first place which is to ease congestion. It has morphed into a sneaky way to raise money.
Under new labour the idea was to fine motorists to pay for the wardens who handed out the fines and thereby massage the jobless figures. The abortive house sales pack with its army of inspectors was the same thing.

Easing parking to help trade will please small businesses.

Tom Tom

I am tired of paying taxes on cars and having to buy coil springs as decrepit roads and speed bumps destroy the suspension and tyres

Russell

Nothing absurd at all with Pickles imagination, more likely a good assessment of what a Labour government would be like.
Labour don’t need to be ‘painted’ as the nasty party, or that they were wrong, people have seen proof they are a nasty party and been shown to be so wrong they destroyed the Education system, the NHS care, did virtually no improvements to Transport in 13 years, and did nothing to help the ‘hard working people’ with energy Bills (in fact it was Miliband who increased energy Bills for ‘hard working people’).
A party of lying, spinning, smearing MP’s who did undreamt of damage to this country are the nasty party and people should be told over and over again until even the thickies who vote for them understand.

telemachus

OK old man
Nasty?
Have you not seen BBC or Sky news today
The Tory Cheerleader, Dacre’s Tabloid, has not only committed the ultimate slur on another party’s leader
Not only to manipulate teenage musings
But also to feature distressing graveyard pictures
*
Then to cap it all when even David Cameron drew a line under thoughts of such nastiness they compounded the calumny by reiterating the lies
*
Breathtaking

Russell

If you bother to read what the Mail wrote, there were no lies at all, Panda senior said what he said and the Mail reported that. Miliband is trying the Brown sympathy trick here and should be shafted by the Mail.
Miliband can be sued by the Mail by calling them liars, and I hope they do sue him!
The BBC and Sky today have been wheeling out the usual labour suspects (Labour MP’s, Labour Lords, Labour Councillors, Trade Union Bosses)to comment on every aspect of the Conservative conference speeches (whereas they wheeled out the same people during the appalling Labour conference week).

telemachus

When I was a youth, about the age that Ralph wrote concerns about the attitudes he found here I marched with Tariq Ali and also supped with Martin Webster
Now I would regard both as dangerous to,a well ordered society
*
The point is that as we all grow older we become wiser and to lambast a man for intemperate comments of youth when he cannot answer and to compound it with photographs of his grave is beyond the pale

telemackus

Some of us, as we grow older, get more foolish, and compound the idiocy of youth, with the gross stupidity of remaining a lefty numpty.

Fred Scuttle

So you set up a fake copycat ID. My, you really must think you’re clever.

telemackus

Well, judging by your pathetic posts here and on twitter, I must be a lot smarter than you, numpty.

Nicholas chuzzlewit

If you are wiser now and I do not believe you are, the mind boggles at how monumentally stupid you were as a teenager. The mail merely reported what Ralp Milliband actually said so why that worthless, disingenuous oaf Milliwimp is complaining is a mystery.

telemachus

It was the intent and the manner
The intent was to hurt and the disgraceful graveyard pictures to wound deeply
If we consult Wikipedia on Dacre
For his admirers, Dacre has maintained his newspaper’s defence of family values and the ‘small-c’ conservative interests of the suburban middle-classes in the south of England. The editor himself has said: “The family is the greatest institution on God’s green earth.”[39] Dacre once suggested to a new recruit, the sports columnist Des Kelly, that he should “Make them laugh, make them cry, or make them angry”.[40] From the business point of view, Dacre’s time as editor has been highly successful: “no editor can point to rises in sales that come anywhere near Dacre’s in the [first] 10 years that he has been in the job”.[5]
Dacre’s stated objective is:
…to restore much more integrity to the British political system than exists at the moment, and [one hopes] then that [the] newspapers will respond in kind and gradually will persuade people that what they hear in Parliament is to be believed, and they will trust the newspapers to tell them that.[41]
*
So Mr Dacre-practice what you preach

Nicholas chuzzlewit

You are in serious need of help.

Fergus Pickering

Sorry, fellow, what lies are these? What did the Daily Mail say that was not true?

Tom Tom

PIckles is absurd – we heard the same drivel in 1997 and the control of spending up to 2001 was tighter than Clarke envisaged….and was the reason for the post-2001 splurge. The situation will be dire if Cameron gets back no doubt gay marriage will be mandatory and Cameron will return to sticking a windmill on the side of his house as i pay to trim the wisteria

Chris lancashire

I wonder whether it was good luck or good management that the Conservative Conference was the last of the “season”. Whichever, it has allowed the Conservatives to rebut most of the Labour nonsense and nullify the impact of any Miliband’s giveaways.

Tom Tom

Aren’t conferences simply a bedroom farce as adultery is the main reason for attending ? Surely there are some “lobbyists” acting as escorts for the libidinous attendees in return for favours and contracts ?

Chris lancashire

I’m sure that’s a large part of it. Presumably they are also intended to stimulate the faithful (politically that is) and get the odd sound bite on TV. To the outsider they are all fairly awful.

Smithersjones2013

But they also have a ‘nasty’ badge for the Labour party, thanks to the
McBride book. They don’t want to just paint Labour as wrong, but as bad
too.

Perhaps they should depict them with red eyes and horns. Oh wait a minute…..

miseri

Yes, ‘red Ed’, the ‘nasty party’ and all that is all reminiscent of the ‘Red Eyed’ Blair (remember that?). Well it didn’t work then, and I’m willing to bet it won’t work this time; all it does is demonstrate that the Tories are in disarray and panicky – and so they should be, they’re about to lose yet another election.

Russell

Showing a line of gravestones in Stafford cemetery might be more appropriate than Blair with red eyes, or the red eyes of grieving relatives of those killed in Stafford NHS!

Tom Tom

They have headstones outsude the crematorium do they ? Try airborne pollution in the UK which is some of the worst in Europe and kills 29.000 a year. When will our Green Governors decide to control diesel emissions ?

Fred Scuttle

All modern diesel cars have particulate filters. The problem is therefore being addressed.

Tom Tom

Not true…PSVs and HGVs do NOT. Nor do diesel trains

Fred Scuttle

Hence the word “cars”. More and more vehicles are having them fitted, and in Germany there is a train with one.

Tom Tom

“The UK has repeatedly failed to meet EU air pollution targets over the decades with more than 20 towns and cities found to be emitting pollution at twice the WHO limits. Of particular concern are dusts, sulphates and nitrates from road traffic and other sources, known as particulate matter.”

Pickles – never knowingly undersold. The only consquence of cutting back on fine income will be a rise in council tax, unless he freezes that in which case the consequence will be granny gets fewer visits by social services and fewer council houses get built.

kyalami

Actually, there is vast waste in local government, and much done that doesn’t need to be.

Tom Tom

Most of local government spending is mandated from Whitehall. Neither Councillors not Voters can control it

kyalami

As a recently retired councillor, I am aware of this. However much of the services delivered are gold-plated and for at least some of the others, Whitehall could decide simply not to do it. More could be done with shared services, and so on.

Tom Tom

Landfill Tax is a Government impost which has reduced our council to demanding ID and car registration be recorded before allowing access to recycling centres – and designating one centre only

Teacher

George Orwell never thought of that one!

Russell

Or the labour councils who are currently reducing those essential services could get smart and team up with adjoining councils to reduce back room staff and procurement costs, and reduce the obscene salaries of the so called CEO’s/managers in local government (and sack all the cultural diversity officers, walking promotion officers etc.)

Littlegrayman

Never has so much been paid by so many to so few. Before you all get upset to the managers.

HookesLaw

The money for social services is collected by central government and distributed according to some formula to see that the areas that supposedly need it get it. Its the same with health care.

Its currently illegal I believe for councils to uses fines as part of their general income. Wasn’t there a big fuss just recently when the tories blocked a change in this??